Philips Hue WiFi lighting set up - what do you have?

paulbok

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Picked up some really nice Christmas decoration shades in Ikea yesterday, €5 for the shade & €5 for the 4m of chord with an E14 fitting on it.

Looks really nice with the various colours in the bulbs.

Perfect for my 2 colour E14’s to hang in the upstairs front windows, and more than enough chord length to reach the nearest socket.

I think we need to have an intervention for Andy.....

AndyBoBandy

The worry is I'm still buying lights, but have nowhere to put them!!

2 colour e14's, 2 Blooms, a lightstrip+ with 4m of extensions, and with Black Friday coming, I can only see the stockpile building up even more!

nlassai

Anyone know about any Black Friday deals on Philips Hue lights? Thanks.

OU812

The e14s have dropped to £39 on Amazon

TitianGerm

Am I reading this right? Is it 3 sets of two pack (6 bulbs) for £99?

https://m.johnlewis.com/3x-philips-hue-white-ambiance-wireless-lighting-led-light-bulb-9-5w-a60-b22-bulb-pack-of-2/p237178101

OU812

You are, but they’re white only

TitianGerm

OU812 wrote: »

You are, but they’re white only

White Ambience aren't they?

OU812

Yes. Nothing wrong with them, I prefer having the flexibility of color though.

TitianGerm

OU812 wrote: »

Yes. Nothing wrong with them, I prefer having the flexibility of color though.

Ah I have the colour ones in the main rooms but I find I'm not using them as much.

Colour Ambience would be perfect for where I want them to go. One more for over the kitchen table, one for a hall lamp, one for a downstairs bathroom and three for spare bedrooms.

bk

Various Hue bulbs on sale here, 3 for 2 deals:
https://m.johnlewis.com/browse/special-offers/electrical-offers/smart-home-offers/philips/show-in-stock-items-only/_/N-7f0mZ1z13zzkZ1z0wxdt?showInStockOnly=true

Includes colour bulbs

TitianGerm

bk wrote: »

Various Hue bulbs on sale here, 3 for 2 deals:
https://m.johnlewis.com/browse/special-offers/electrical-offers/smart-home-offers/philips/show-in-stock-items-only/_/N-7f0mZ1z13zzkZ1z0wxdt?showInStockOnly=true

Includes colour bulbs

Sorry thought I had posted the full Smart Home link when I posted the Hue one above.

mrcheez

Hi all, I haven't been following this thread so sorry if this has been asked countless times already.

I just bought two of these Philips Hue ceilings lights for £99 (price just dropped!): https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01L99H846/?th=1

If I want to control both simultaneously from Amazon Echo do I need to pick up a bridge ?


i.e. one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Personal-Wireless-Lighting-Starter/dp/B0152WXI18/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1511220653&sr=8-2&keywords=philips+bridge&dpID=31Zcy%252Bv58kL&preST=_SX342_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

?


Or can the Echo detect the lights without the bridge?

Or is the Harmony Hub thing what I need?

bk

mrcheez, you'll need a Hue bridge.

Some folks here might have one for sale over the next week or so. Lots of people end up with multiple bridges due to getting them as part of pack deals. Or you could buy one of those pack deals yourself that are likely to come up for Black Friday, if you are thinking of getting a few more Hue lights for other rooms. Get in their early on the Hue addiction

You could also use the new Echo Plus, it has a sort of bridge built in. But I really don't recommend if for a variety of reasons.

A Harmony Hub is for controlling Harmony remotes, not Hue lights. The two can work together but their not interchangeable.

mrcheez

bk wrote: »

mrcheez, you'll need a Hue bridge.

Some folks here might have one for sale over the next week or so. Lots of people end up with multiple bridges due to getting them as part of pack deals. Or you could buy one of those pack deals yourself that are likely to come up for Black Friday, if you are thinking of getting a few more Hue lights for other rooms. Get in their early on the Hue addiction

You could also use the new Echo Plus, it has a sort of bridge built in. But I really don't recommend if for a variety of reasons.

A Harmony Hub is for controlling Harmony remotes, not Hue lights. The two can work together but their not interchangeable.

Nice thanks... yeah I'm sure this question seems obvious to those in this forum

I take it that leaving the bridge plugged in doesn't use much more electricity than my modem etc?

Actually will be interesting to see if my electricity bills change noticeably having 2 echo dots on, plus the Hue lights, plus the bridge and my modem.
I usually flick off the modem when leaving the house for the day, and obviously the current lights are the normal on/off type, not Hue lights pinging a bridge.

But now I'll need them all active so that I can turn on the lights using my voice when I get home.

bk

The hue bridge uses just 3w, which is probably less then your modem.

As to your question of power usage, what sort of lights are you replacing?

If you are replacing an old style bulb or CFL type, then these are LED and overall will use far less power, so a net positive despite the extra standby power. If you are replacing LED's then yes that would be a little different.

mrcheez

bk wrote: »

The hue bridge uses just 3w, which is probably less then your modem.

As to your question of power usage, what sort of lights are you replacing?

If you are replacing an old style bulb or CFL type, then these are LED and overall will use far less power, so a net positive despite the extra standby power. If you are replacing LED's then yes that would be a little different.

I have 2 ceiling roses with 5 of these Philips Tornado energy saving bulbs in them

https://www.lights.ie/e27-20w-827-energy-saving-bulb-tornado-performance-93370-ie-en.html?utm_source=pv&utm_medium=google_shopping&utm_campaign=249&utm_content=93370&lgw_code=4826-7530558&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9-Hzq7TO1wIVITPTCh3Khgd5EAQYAyABEgJKX_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Since these are 20W each (so 100W total per rose), then I guess I'll be saving a fair bit with my new Hue ceiling lights which are rated 40W, so can afford to leave more electronics plugged in constantly.

bren2001

Decided to flick about on the internet round 11 pm last night and saw a link in BA to 3 colour GU10's and a bridge for 120 on Amazon ES.

Nice to finally have my first smart bulb, let the bank balance chaos begin!

I assume there wont be a better deal than the 3 for 2 in John Lewis on the GU10 bulbs? Still need a few more.

AndyBoBandy

bren2001 wrote: »

I assume there wont be a better deal than the 3 for 2 in John Lewis on the GU10 bulbs? Still need a few more.

Check Amazon on an almost hourly basis, particularly from Thursday onwards,

The best deal might be GU10 starter packs, though I'm not sure if they'd go below £100

Amazon did have some 3 for 2 deals on Hue bulbs recently, so I'd say the least they'll do is match that deal again.

The White Ambiance GU10's are reasonably good on amazon at the moment at £40 for a twin pack.
If you'r not interested in having colour bulbs, the White Ambiance ones are still excellent as they do all white colours (warm (yellowish) to cold (blueish) whites)

I've 10 colour GU10's in my kitchen, and 10 White Ambiance GU10's (4 on landing, 6 in attic), and 99.99% of the time, the colour GU10's in the kitchen only run the white ambiance colours, and not colour (red/blue/green etc..), except when I'm having a disco with my 3 year old son.

flangemeistro

Guys can anyone here with hue lights and an Amazon echo help me out please.

I've posted in the Amazon Echo thread last week with no solutions so I'm trying here because I'm ready to throw her out the window.

Since the last Alexa update I can't change scenes with my Alexa, she says hmmmmm hue isn't responding or you have two devices named the same thing so rename them and run Discovery again.

I spent literally hours renaming and disabling old iterations of my bulbs and strips which there is no way of deleting or forgetting and I'm still getting told that two devices have the same name even though they don't.

All I can do now is turn my lights on and off and dim them that's it which is really frustrating as I had full functionality before the update.

I'm pulling my hair out here so any info would be appreciated.

Thanks.

bk

flangemeistro, you could try a service like IFTTT, Yonomi or stringify (I can't remember now which ones work with Alexa).

Also you should check if their are different Hue skills in the Amazon app, that might be a cause of some issues.

AndyBoBandy

New iOS update to the main Hue app was just released, the app now let’s you select sunset/sunrise or “at a specific time” as the trigger to your routines.

irelandrover

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

New iOS update to the main Hue app was just released, the app now let’s you select sunset/sunrise or “at a specific time” as the trigger to your routines.

Do you have evening bedrooms and night bedrooms. Your house is even fancier than i thought.

AndyBoBandy

I guess the naming of my routines is a throw back to when I had multiple & various routines running over the course of a day. For example, I used to have an 'afternoon downstairs' routine that started at 4pm (when it would start getting darker), and it made downstairs (hallway, kitchen & Living room) go an Energise/Concentrate white colour, then I had another 'evening downstairs' routine at 6pm onwards that faded the lights from Energise to Relax

Same with upstairs for early evening, and then later evening when we'd be heading upstairs with the little guy.

In the older Hue app I had about 15-20 various routines, but on the new app I’ve been able to condense it down to about 5-6 routines thanks to the ability to group rooms together.

matrim

I haven't been happy with any of the light switch covers that I got so decided to try something a bit different.

bk

Oh my god, that is awesome, I'm stealing that idea

AndyBoBandy

bk wrote: »

Oh my god, that is awesome, I'm stealing that idea

Everybody is stealing that idea.

AndyBoBandy

Whats on everyones wish list for tomorrow?

Oddly enough I could still do with a set of B22 colour bulbs as the centre light in the master bedroom is only a White Ambiance, and my office colour bulb is an E27, so I'm still using an adaptor for it in it's B22 fitting. 2 B22 colours would 'complete the set'.

I'd then have a second spare B22 White Ambiance, and I could put the old office colour E27 into the main bathroom light replacing a White only bulb.

I'd also consider a few more colour E14's as their great for various lights you can get in Ikea etc... and I'm thinking long term of replacing the living room centre light, or the hallway centre light with a 4/5 bulb E14 type fitting.

And of course, any ridiculous prices for anything else, and I'll most likely bite!!

The Black Oil

Great set up, matrim!

Slight configuration issue with the porch light here, methinks. Went to the loo at about 4:50am this morning. Noticed glare from the porch coming up the landing. Checked the app and the sensor said the last activity was after 9pm. It's not on a night time routine. I suspect someone hit the traditional wall switch before going to bed. And just on that, if this is first turned on on the traditional wall switch, it won't naturally knock off after 1 minute (which is what the sensor is set for, but it's on via the wall and no sensor motion, it'll just stay on, right?). User error, on my part? Other than that, it's proving pretty handy as a porch light - daylight sensor element, too.

AndyBoBandy

I have a master routine (1 routine to routine them all) set for midnight, to turn everything off (all lights should be off by that time anyway as per my regular routines, but just in case there are a few stragglers).
We're all well tucked up in bed at that stage, and if I do go downstairs, the kitchen sensor has my back.

AndyBoBandy

Great deals now on Amazin,

E27/B22 starter pack (richer colours) only £90
GU10 starter pack only £90

2 Light Strips & 2 White Ambiance GU10’s only £100

I picked up the B22 starter pack even though I only need 2 of the bulbs! At £30 each its too good to turn down!